Chapter 3: THE INNOCENT PERCEPTION

VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem

1 We have
already discussed the Last Judgment, but in insufficient detail.
After the Last Judgment there will be no more. Judgment is symbolic
because beyond perception there is no judgment. When the Bible says
"Judge not that ye be not judged," it means that if you
judge the reality of others you will be unable to avoid judging your
own.

2 The choice to
judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace.
Judgment is the process on which perception but not knowledge rests.
I have discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of
perception, pointing out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite.
judgment always involves rejection. It never emphasizes only the
positive aspects of what is judged, whether in you or in others. What
has been perceived and rejected, or judged and found wanting, remains
in your mind because it has been perceived. One of the illusions from
which you suffer is the belief that what you judged against has no
effect. This cannot be true unless you also believe that what you
judged against does not exist. You evidently do not believe this, or
you would not have judged against it. In the end it does not matter
whether your judgment is right or wrong. Either way you are placing
your belief in the unreal. This cannot be avoided in any type of
judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to
select from.

3 You have no
idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting
yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you
recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize
that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their
meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging
them. All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the
coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organise your
life, and you certainly do not need it to organise yourself. In the
presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and
this is the process that enables recognition to replace
perception.

4 You are very
fearful of everything you have perceived but have refused to accept.
You believe that, because you have refused to accept it, you have
lost control over it. This is why you see it in nightmares, or in
pleasant disguises in what seem to be your happier dreams. Nothing
that you have refused to accept can be brought into awareness. It is
not dangerous in itself, but you have made it seem dangerous to
you.

5 When you feel
tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable of being
tired. When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him
as unworthy. When you laugh at yourself you must laugh at others, if
only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than
they are. All this makes you feel tired because it is essentially
disheartening. You are not really capable of being tired, but you are
very capable of wearying yourself. The strain of constant judgment
is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so
debilitating would be so deeply cherished. Yet if you wish to be the
author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. You
will also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday
be used against you. This belief can exist only to the extent that
you believe in the efficacy of judgment as a weapon of defense for
your own authority.

6 God offers
only mercy. Your words should reflect only mercy, because that is
what you have received and that is what you should give. Justice is a
temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy.
It is judgmental only because you are capable of injustice.

7 I have spoken
of different symptoms, and at that level there is almost endless
variation. There is, however, only one cause for all of them: the
authority problem. This is "the root of all evil."
Every symptom the ego makes involves a contradiction in terms,
because the mind is split between the ego and the Holy Spirit, so
that whatever the ego makes is incomplete and contradictory. This
untenable position is the result of the authority problem which,
because it accepts the one inconceivable thought as its premise, can
produce only ideas that are inconceivable.

8 The issue of
authority is really a question of authorship. When you have an
authority problem, it is always because you believe you are the
author of yourself and project your delusion onto others. You then
perceive the situation as one in which others are literally fighting
you for your authorship. This is the fundamental error of all those
who believe they have usurped the power of God. This belief is very
frightening to them, but hardly troubles God. He is, however, eager
to undo it, not to punish His children, but only because He knows
that it makes them unhappy. God's creations are given their true
Authorship, but you prefer to be anonymous when you choose to
separate yourself from your Author. Being uncertain of your true
Authorship, you believe that your creation was anonymous. This leaves
you in a position where it sounds meaningful to believe that you
created yourself. The dispute over authorship has left such
uncertainty in your mind that it may even doubt whether you really
exist at all.

9 Only those
who give over all desire to reject can know that their own rejection
is impossible. You have not usurped the power of God, but you
have lost it. Fortunately, to lose something does not mean
that it has gone. It merely means that you do not remember where it
is. Its existence does not depend on your ability to identify it, or
even to place it. It is possible to look on reality without judgment
and merely know that it is there.

10 Peace is a
natural heritage of spirit. Everyone is free to refuse to accept his
inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance is.
The problem everyone must decide is the fundamental question of
authorship. All fear comes ultimately, and sometimes by way of very
devious routes, from the denial of Authorship. The offense is never
to God, but only to those who deny Him. To deny His Authorship is to
deny yourself the reason for your peace, so that you see yourself
only in segments. This strange perception is the authority
problem.

11 There is no
one who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. If this is
the result of his own free will he must regard his will as not free,
or the circular reasoning in this position would be quite apparent.
Free will must lead to freedom. Judgment always imprisons because it
separates segments of reality by the unstable scales of desire.
Wishes are not facts. To wish is to imply that willing is not
sufficient. Yet no one in his right mind believes that what is wished
is as real as what is willed. Instead of "Seek ye first the
Kingdom of Heaven" say, "Will ye first the Kingdom
of Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I
accept my own inheritance."